5 UFC prospects who didn't reach their potential this decade (2010-2019)

#3 Alex Garcia

Alex Garcia is one of the most naturally gifted athletes in MMA

One of the most naturally gifted athletes in MMA, Alex Garcia was only cut from the UFC a couple of months ago, and at 32 years old and in the most loaded division in the sport (Welterweight), there’s every chance he could return in the near future.

‘The Dominican Nightmare’ came into the promotion with high hopes of becoming a legitimate title contender, and sadly never came close.

He started off excellently; wins over Ben Wall and Sean Spencer put him at 2-0 in the UFC and 12-1 overall midway through 2014, and his loss to Neil Magny was a controversial decision that saw him severely injure his knee.

He returned in 2015 to defeat veteran Mike Swick, and it seemed that he was back on track, his mix of powerful wrestling and striking blended together with insane athleticism.

That wasn’t the case though, as his next fight saw him KO’d by Sean Strickland after losing steam in the later rounds. That turned out to be a pattern for ‘The Dominican Nightmare’ – he could finish opponents in violent and flashy ways, as he did against Mike Pyle and Muslim Salikhov, but if a foe could survive the early rush, Garcia tended to gas out and struggle down the stretch.

If the Dominican fighter could’ve closed that hole in his game, he almost certainly would’ve been a UFC title contender if not a champion, but as it is he’ll go down as a missed opportunity more than anything else, a blue-chip prospect with an unfortunate major weak spot.